Digg reckons their algorithms can spot paid-to-Digg patterns. Looks like they can't. Annalee Newitz has successfully paid a company to Digg her blog, read about it over at Wired I can tell you exactly how a pointless blog full of poorly written, incoherent commentary made it to the front page on Digg. I paid people to do it. What's more, my bought votes lured honest Diggers to vote for it too. All told, I wound up with a "popular" story that earned 124 diggs -- more than half of them unpaid. I … [Read more...]
The Right Way To Approach Communities With Content and Traffic
Garrett French learned the hard way how to approach forums for content and traffic One key difference is that I opened a forum thread to DISTRIBUTE content rather than to ask a question and start to GENERATE content. I did ask a question at the end of the thread, but my intention was partly to get a quick shot of traffic which in my rear view mirror now looks like a bad idea.Communities can sniff out someone just there for the take, you need to contribute in a meaningful way. Rather than what … [Read more...]
Better Blog Branding: Domain Exclusivity
In the first post of this series we looked at naming your blog brand and selecting domains. What happens when someone registers "your" domain? How much damage can they do to you? This is a real problem, and happens all the time. Particularly dangerous once you have built an audience. When you start out your only worry is choosing a domain. It is only later after succeeding in gaining recognition many bloggers concern themselves with protecting their brand. Usual advice when registering … [Read more...]
What’s Even More Important Than a Well Written Headline?
Yes, powerful headlines are vital. No need to go over that. There is one factor though that is even more important. So important that if you don't get it right ... even the most compelling headline will flop.People pass by.The reader yawns.What is this vital factor you ask? While you are reading the following headlines, see if you can work out what element could be so important.Wilsons Walrus Wax - 50% Off, Today OnlyDouble The Shine In Half The Time - Wilsons Patented WaxWhile those headlines … [Read more...]
The Hidden Blog Metrics Trap
Since reading the FeedBurner report Aaron has been thinking about how to change his approach towards RSS metrics I wonder, really, how our strategies will change as assumptions fly in the face of reality. I also wonder how many people cater to their RSS audience and encourage engagement from those readers. I personally have taken to better headlines and strategic first paragraphs as recommended by people like Brian Clark and following other good-practice techniques. It seems those great … [Read more...]
Danger of Duplicate Content?
After my "Should you worry about SEO" post yesterday a reader asked about Googles Duplicate Content penalty. He was worried about cross-posting his articles and also spammers ripping off his content. I know this is a problem many bloggers, especially freelance writers, are concerned about.Another concern was the effect on his PageRank. Let's clear that one up first. Don't worry about pagerank. The only time PageRank matters is when selling links, etc. Look further than the green on a toolbar, it … [Read more...]
Should Bloggers Worry About SEO?
Lately there seems to be a trend of bloggers worrying unnecessarily about SEO. It is not helped by rumours of Google penalties or dodgy out of date blog and forum "advice" (some of which is downright counter-productive). So should you worry about Search Engine Optimisation?As with any industry where there is a competitive advantage to keeping your true tactics to yourself there is a lot of misinformation in the search engine world. Of course there is. On top of that there are the people who … [Read more...]
Better Blog Branding: 10 Ways To Destroy Your Brand
It is a lot easier to damage a brand than it is to build one. You can grow a brand gradually over time but the same brand can be destroyed over night. We all know products, celebrities, politicians and companies that have had massive and instant reversal of fortunes due to one slip up. Sometimes they recover, many times their moment in the spotlight is over. Could you be damaging your brand without knowing it? While you read through all the following points consider your own brand and … [Read more...]
Samples and Review Items, Bribery or PR?
Nick over on his new ClickInfluence blog has a post up about Sending Gifts to Influencers Sending gifts to bloggers, in the hope they'll write about them may seem a potentially dangerous move. If it backfired it could certainly cause some nasty negative PR, but provided some caution, and a good helping of common sense is employed, I can't find a reason not to like it.It's an interesting topic. I remember being on the other side of the issue, the agencies I worked at regularly would be charged … [Read more...]
Interesting Digg Monetization Strategy
While "domaining" (usually buying up domains, putting up CPC ads then selling them from what I understand) isn't a business model I would want to get into, Ahmed at TechSoapBox thinks this is one way Digg traffic can be immediately monetizedDomain registered on Feburary 14, 2007 to Kavi Siegel (cvxdes)Website and content put up that very same day.Domain gets dugg that same day also.Three days later, domain/site gets sold for $500The really interesting thing about this is because of domain … [Read more...]
Hi, I’m Chris Garrett: I work with business owners and entrepreneurs to help them build lasting and profitable relationships with audiences who grow to know, like and trust them
